2018-04-03

New List of U.S. Tariffs Targets Made in China 2025

As a reminder, "Made in China 2025" was announced in 2015, and highlighted 10 sectors that need support on the way to China becoming an advanced manufacturing power; these include: Information technology, high-end machinery and robotics, aerospace, marine equipment and ships, advanced rail transport, new-energy vehicles, electric power, agricultural machinery, new materials, and bio-medical. China also has a separate development strategy for artificial intelligence, published in 2017.

While both investors and businesses have been awaiting details of Trump’s plan to place tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods, nobody was looking forward to the list more than China itself. As we reported this morning, China's US Ambassador said that Beijing is preparing aggressive counter-measures of the “same proportion, scale and intensity" once the Trump administration imposes further tariffs on Chinese goods.

USTR Robert Lighthizer had until April 6 to publish a list of proposed products. There’s now a 60-day period when the public can provide feedback and the government holds hearings on the tariffs.